Mike_Hiland's blog

Initiative Petition 35 would finally send kicker funds to K-12 schools

Our Oregon is launching a signature gathering effort to qualify an initiative for the November ballot that would send money to K-12 classrooms by reforming the corporate “kicker” refund.
For more than a decade, school advocates, teachers, and parents have talked about the need for kicker reform. Reforming the corporate kicker and putting those dollars back into our classrooms is an idea that has broad support. “The corporate kicker has long been described as costly and irresponsible,” says Our Oregon Director Patrick Green. “Initiative Petition 35 is an opportunity for everyone who cares about schools to come together and finally do something about it.”

Volunteer signature gathering on the initiative will begin as early as this weekend.
 

“Right now, Oregon’s K-12 students are facing a crisis of classroom overcrowding. Thousands of teachers have lost their jobs, and districts are closing neighborhood schools,” says Grant High parent and volunteer Otto Schell. “Parents across the state know that we’ve got to get more funding into our classrooms. It is long past the time when we need to prioritize our students and schools and give them the support that all children deserve.”
 

As much as 80% of the money from the corporate kicker goes to large, out-of-state corporations.* We should invest those dollars in our K-12 classrooms, rather than sending the money to the out-of-state headquarters of large corporations.
 

The House GOP Ryan Budget is the most morally disgusting document I have seen in my lifetime. How can anybody take seriously a plan that is so obviously a redistribution of income from the poor to the wealthy, with no impact on the long term deficit. These people need to be run out of DC.

Here is a small quote from the CBPP analysis

The new Ryan budget is a remarkable document — one that, for most of the past half-century, would have been outside the bounds of mainstream discussion due to its extreme nature. In essence, this budget is Robin Hood in reverse — on steroids. It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S. history and likely increase poverty and inequality more than any other budget in recent times (and possibly in the nation’s history). It also would stand a core principle of the Bowles-Simpson fiscal commission’s report on its head — that policymakers should reduce the deficit in a way that does not increase poverty or widen inequality.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3712

What does great teaching look like and why should we care?

The Chalkboard Project is kicking off a series of digital conversations to help our Citizens’ Corps become informed about emerging issues in education. We count on you and members of this active alliance to advocate for meaningful policy change that will address Oregon’s education challenges.

Each of these virtual brown bags are designed to provide you with relevant news about education issues and to hear first-hand accounts of ongoing developments from local, state and national policy experts and educators.

Join us for this conversation.

Campaign to Increase the Oregon Earned Income Tax Credit

Near-Term Goals for the EITC Coalition

Our EITC coalition can achieve important wins next year, despite the fact that continuing budget constraints make it unlikely that the 2012 legislative session will seek to improve Oregon's Earned Income Tax Credit.

One such win would be to obtain an extension of the credit's expiration date. The Oregon EITC currently is scheduled to sunset January 1, 2014. Unless the legislature extends the sunset date, the EITC will expire by that date, with serious economic consequences for low-income working families with children. Now is a good time to push for extending the EITC's sunset, a move that would have no impact on the current biennial budget.

Another important step is to make sure that improving the EITC is a part of any state strategy to reduce poverty. Governor Kitzhaber's office has indicated that in the coming months it will release a plan to address poverty. Our coalition will encourage the Governor's office to include improvement of the EITC, one of the most targeted and effective ways to make work pay for low-income working families with children, in any such plan.

For updates on efforts to improve the EITC go to www.oregoniansforworkingfamilies.org.

Defend TANF and Other Safety Net Services

Latest ocpp update:

Pretty discouraged by how extremist the GOP has become. They were willing to put us in default and throw the economy back into recession in order to win big cuts to government spending and further cripple the recovery. They want to cut college loans and aid to poor families while at the same time protecting tax cuts for the wealthy. Making sure that the wealthy have to make no sacrifices, thats its all on the backs of the poor and middle class.

The debt cannot be reduced while the economy has still not fully recovered. Budgets should naturally run surpluses during good times and deficits during bad times. But the GOP strategy was to run deficits all the time through tax cuts for the wealthy. Thus when a recession does occur the deficit will expand dramatically and they can force the kinds of cuts they have dreamed about, moving government more and more away from the needs of average Americans.

The only way to reduce it fairly is through both new revenues and spending cuts, but they would rather sacrafice millions of jobs in a renewed recession than have their constituients pay there fair share. It is very clear who the GOP stands for and they cannot be allowed to get away with holding the economy for ransom.

More bad news in the US House. The deficit cannot be balanced by targetting the poor. I have never seen worse proposals coming out of DC than I have this year from the US House. We need to retire these guys in 2012. (click the link to read the full article)

House GOP Proposes Budget Cuts To Domestic, Foreign Food Aid

www.huffingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are targeting domestic nutrition programs and international food assistance as they try to control spending in next year's budget. In a bill released Monday, Republicans proposed cutting $832 million – or 11 percent – from this year's budget for the Women, Infants and.......

This is taken fron the website - www.circleofprotection.us. Its an effort to not balance the budget on the backs of poor people while other groups make little to no sacrifices. Groups that work on these issues see the potential of 30 years of anti-poverty work being sweeped away by the budget plan that has already passed the US House. Now is the time to stand with our neighbors and oppose these short sighted cuts. Please check out the website and join the circle.

What is the Circle of Protection?

In the face of historic deficits, the nation faces unavoidable choices about how to balance needs and resources and allocate burdens and sacrifices. These choices are economic, political—and moral.

We are still struggling from this recent recession. Additional cuts are planned for our schools for next year, we cannot go through this anymore. There is a bi-partisan rainy day fund proposal in the state legislature, its time that we pass it and end this nightmare.

A recession in Oregon, creates about a 20-25% hole in the budget due to lower income tax receipts. This has a big impact on our schools, health and public safety. We cannot maintain good programs with this level of fluctuation. This hurts our business climate, our state’s bond rating, and our ability to compete in a knowledge based economy. It takes away jobs. The only viable solution is to save during the good times, so that the budget gap can be reduced during recessions.

The rainy day fund proposal (bill number SJR26) would allow us to make these savings during the good times, and lock them away for use only during a recession. A key part of its bi-partisan appeal is that it takes money from a variety of sources. It takes some money from the kicker, and some from the general fund during good years. Once the fund reaches 12% of the general fund budget, it is capped and sealed, and cannot be used until the next recession. This is the general outline, the final details of the bill are still to be determined.

The only way this bill can pass, is through an active push by us to our elected representatives. Please email your legislators, and urge them to support SJR26. Links to their emails are available at the sherwoodstand.org website.

Below are the details of the GOP power grab. The unions have already largely agreed to step 1 (benefit concessions). The radical part of this plan is the basic ending of collective bargaining. Can you imagine if a private employer tried to impose such radical restrictions of tieing pay raises only to inflation. This gives families no wage growth over their carreers. How can they ever save for college and their own retirement.

The GOP governor did not disclose the details of this plan during the campaign, This is a classic power grabbing bait and switch. If the GOP succeeds in this, this will be a power signal to private employers to move in the same direction. If you work in private industry, like me, make no mistake, we are next.

Details:

Wisconsin's capital Madison was besieged by protesters this week as tens of thousands of state workers demonstrated against a Republican spending bill. Here is what Republican Gov. Scott Walker has proposed:

* State workers must increase contributions to their pensions to 5.8 percent of salary, and double contributions to their health insurance premiums to 12.6 percent. This would result in a cut in take-home pay of about 8 percent.

* Walker wants to limit collective bargaining to the issue of wages, and cap wage increases to the rate of inflation, with a voter referendum needed for larger increases.

Oregon Stability Package

SJR 26 - Morse/Burdick 2011

Initial Proposal

·        Put the Rainy Day Fund in the constitution.

On February 21, 2011, thousands of Oregonians
will come together on the Capitol Steps in Salem. 

We're heading into a session that promises more
activity in education than we've seen for nearly 20 years. 
YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS THIS! 

Join us as we advocate for the best budget for schools,
and to tell legislators that we must work together
to make sure every school in Oregon is a great school!

Learn more and get involved!

• What will Stand for Children be advocating for in Salem?
  Check out our draft 2011 legislative agenda to find out.
• Want to fill a bus or get involved locally?
  Contact your local organizer!

(from Rep David Hunt)

To prevent more debilitating cuts to our schools this year and to give our children the best possible education, the Legislature must use $35.5 million from the Education Stability Fund (ESF) when the new legislative session convenes in February.

Some legislators want to block this critical action in February, which requires a super-majority vote.  We must make sure this action is taken.

Without this $35.5 million, every school across Oregon will be negatively impacted during this school year.  The combined loss to schools across Clackamas County alone would be $3,371,694.  (North Clackamas Schools would lose $1,026,281, Oregon City Schools would lose $470,150, and Gladstone Schools would lose $121,028 for this school year.)

Please contact your state legislators to urge expeditious action in February to use $35.5 million (out of $110 million) from the Education Stability Fund to stabilize the remainder of this school year for our children.